Flora Grubb Gardens

The newly relocated plant store is run by Flora Grubb, well-known for her selection of palm trees. She also stocks a fascinating collection of plants called Echeveria, desert succulents that look like undersea creatures. She's using them in a civic project, replanting the median strip of Guerrero Street. The store is housed in an airy, light-filled, industrial-style shed designed by architects Bonnie Bridges and Seth Boor and has 72 photovoltaic panels on the roof. Solar energy supplies the needs of the plant nursery and the in-house coffee bar, a branch of Ritual Coffee Roasters that's a magnet for the neighborhood's workforce. Not only is the building set on a slab that's engineered to float if the ground beneath it liquefies in a quake, but the solar-powered espresso machine will keep running no matter what.

Flora Grubb Gardens

The newly relocated plant store is run by Flora Grubb, well-known for her selection of palm trees. She also stocks a fascinating collection of plants called Echeveria, desert succulents that look like undersea creatures. She's using them in a civic project, replanting the median strip of Guerrero Street. The store is housed in an airy, light-filled, industrial-style shed designed by architects Bonnie Bridges and Seth Boor and has 72 photovoltaic panels on the roof. Solar energy supplies the needs of the plant nursery and the in-house coffee bar, a branch of Ritual Coffee Roasters that's a magnet for the neighborhood's workforce. Not only is the building set on a slab that's engineered to float if the ground beneath it liquefies in a quake, but the solar-powered espresso machine will keep running no matter what.